Maybe you’ve seen him on CNN, NBC, ABC, Fox News, the BBC, or the Food Network. Maybe you read his column discussing people, performance and profitability in Nation’s Restaurant News. Over 450,000 foodservice and retail employees, executives and franchisees worldwide have read his newsletters, books, or columns and seen his DVDs, webcasts, e-learning programs and live seminars. His products and programs have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Newsweek, Fast Company, Inc. and USA Today.

Jim Sullivan, CEO and Founder of Sullivision.com, is a veteran of over 20 years in the hospitality and retail industries. He’s worked for and with companies as distinct as Walt Disney Company, McDonald’s, and American Express. Not a “theorist”, Sullivan is well-known as a brand-builder, motivator, trend-spotter and problem-solver. He has built his reputation designing successful sales, marketing, and customer service programs for the “Top 200” foodservice and retail chains, and over 1,000 independent industry owners and operators. He’s the author of two books that have sold over 400,000 copies worldwide, including the 2010 best-seller MultiUnit Leadership: The 7 Stages of Building High-Performing Partnerships and Teams. His DVDs called Jumpstart! The Art of Effective Pre-Shift Meetings and The Shift: are being used in over 30,000 companies worldwide.

TOPICS

Fundamentals: the 10 Best Practices of High-Performing Operators, Franchisees and GMs
In this workshop your team will learn the best new ways to increase sales, improve service, reduce costs, hire smarter, build stronger teams, improve retention, market without advertising, measurably improve the leadership skills of your managers, and teach and inspire the iPod Generation team member to go from good to great. Full of specific “how-to’s” and examples, not theory.

Multiunit Leadership: The 7 Stages of Building High-Performing Partnerships and Teams
This program is based on the best-selling 2010 book and research from over 3000 Area Managers, multiunit franchisees and Regional Directors. Your audience will learn the 7 stages of leadership development of successful multiunit operators, how to effectively manage multiple priorities, how to conduct high-impact unit visits and evolve from “inspecting units” to building strong teams and future leaders.

Execution: What the Best Teams Do to Get the Job Done Every Shift, Every Day
It is no harder to achieve something great than it is to achieve something good. This presentation examines why some teams outperform others doing the exact same work, and how to transform quarterly goals into daily results. We detail best practices and the roles that Focus, Accountability and Training play in attaining goals and fostering habitually consistent behavior.

Full Biography

Tom Sullivan, known to many as an actor, singer, entertainer, author and producer, lives and works by “Sullivan’s Rules.” As a young boy he found himself fenced in his back yard, but he refused to be fenced in by his blindness. “Sullivan’s Rules” were invented by Tom and his father, Porky Sullivan, so that he could play baseball with the neighborhood boys without the benefit of seeing the ball. It became the most popular game on the block. “Sullivan’s Rules” became the rules to play by in the sighted world, and that meant playing almost anything.

One of Sullivan’s first rules is that any negative can be turned into positive. Born prematurely in 1947, Tom was given too much oxygen while in an incubator. Though it saved his life, it cost him his eyesight. The “inconvenience” of being blind has never kept Tom Sullivan from competing in a world where he realized that to be equal, for him, meant that he must be better. Even as he may have had to change the rules slightly, he has proven that one need not be limited by a handicap, whether it is playing backyard baseball as a youngster or any activity he’s pursued. Tom is an excellent golfer. (“I’ve never seen a water hazard. I always have an open shot to the green.”) He’s an avid snow skier and a marathon runner and has been inducted into the Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Having spent the early part of his career pursuing his ambition as a singer and composer, Tom started out playing the piano in summer resorts in New England. He eventually gained national prominence with appearances on The Tonight Show, a major recording contract and a steady stream of gigs in Las Vegas and resorts around the country. One very memorable highlight of his musical career was when he sang a moving rendition of The Star Spangled Banner at the 1976 Super Bowl Game Bicentennial Celebration. Although music was his primary focus, Tom’s limitless energy and ambition would combine to lead him into a series of successes in the entertainment industry.

In 1975, Tom’s autobiography, If You Could See What I Hear, co-written with Derek Gill, took him on yet another journey, this time as an author. The story is an inspirational one of Tom’s childhood in Boston, his neighborhood friends and their antics, and lessons along with resulting wisdom from his family experiences. It is also a coming-of-age story of his school days, first at the Perkins Institute for the Blind, where he excelled in everything he attempted, through his college years at Providence College and then at Harvard. Ultimately, it is a true love story about his romance and marriage to his wife, Patty, and the beginning of a family that is to this day the most cherished part of his life.